forms the honeycomb shape, elastic and rich with eye possibilities.
Japanese 蜂の巣 ("hachi no su").
Sebastian: Which stones does the honeycomb consist of? The marked ones? But wouldn't that be a lion's mouth?
Bob Myers: Yes, it's the stones. Although the honeycomb could also include more stones in the same type of lattice structure.
The difference is that whereas a lion's mouth is a particular type of connection preventing the other side from cutting, the honeycomb is composed solely of one color of stones, in this case White.
SnotNose: The lion's mouth is composed of one color too. The distinction, it seems, is that the lion's mouth is a move made to protect two cutting points whereas the honeycomb is just a light, sabaki-enabling shape. Since the shape is (locally) the same, the term is really just descriptive of the intent and the surrounding conditions, not so much the shape. Also, the final move tends to be different. In the lion's mouth, the final move would be . In the honeycomb it is more likely to be one of
or
.